The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

In another cabin, Xiao Chengjun lay with eyes closed on the straw mat, starting to dream again.

Just like the previous two times, his dream were bizarre and chaotic, with many scenes intertwined, leaving his mind in confusion.

However, one person stood out in his memories, that was Chen Tiantian, who was now serving as a palace maid in the East palace.

Because his dream was all about her. He was infatuated and crazy about her, head over heels, willing to smash into a wall for her, regardless of splattering his brain. He would do it, even if it caused his hands to be stained with blood, without any regret.

But how is that possible? How could he go to such lengths for a woman? Unless he was crazy.

Xiao Chengjun resisted internally, trying hard to break free from this strange dream, but just couldn’t.

Crackle!

A startling thunderclap sounded.

Xiao Chengjun suddenly sat up, panting heavily.

Thank goodness, it’s just a dream.

He composed himself, looking outside through the small window.

The pitch-black sky was occasionally lit up by flashes of lightning, accompanied by muffled thunder.

A gale swept through the cabin, making a moaning noise, and causing the ship to begin to rock.

Xiao Chengjun stood up, put on a cloak and boots, and opened the cabin door.

A gust of wind blew his way, knocking him off balance.

The boy servant, Nan Zhu, quickly grabbed him, “Master, the wind is strong and the deck is dangerous.”

Xiao Chengjun had to retreat back into the cabin, watching Nan Zhu close the cabin door.

Soon, it started to rain outside.

Nan Zhu looked out the window worriedly, muttering, “Why is it suddenly raining? Luckily, we hadn’t set sail.”

Xiao Chengjun lay back down, closed his eyes feigning sleep, his mind still filled with thoughts of the dream.

Strange indeed, in his dream, his wife’s name was also Jiang Yingbao.

Every time he tried to see what she looked like, he was never successful.

The wind and rain outside grew larger, and the ship started to sway more.

Lil’ Zhu was so frightened that he couldn’t close his eyes, kneeling on the ground with his hands clasped together, mumbling for Buddha’s blessing, and the blessings of the Three Purities.

At the break of dawn, the storm got worse and the whole ship was tossed about by the waves.

“Oh no! There’s a ship overturning!”

Someone outside was shouting.

The ship’s captain and a few sailors held onto the ship’s pillar, looking out at the river.

They saw a ship capsizing not far away, slowly sinking.

“Oh! It’s a cargo ship!” one sailor shouted. “There are quite a few people falling into the water!”

The captain’s eyes lit up and he quickly ordered, “Quick, save them! Throw our lifebuoys into the water, anyone we can save counts!”

“Alright!” Two sailors ran to the stern of the ship against the wind, untied a string of lifebuoys from the side, then ran to the bow, and threw it out with all their strength.

Afterwards, the two of them climbed down along the side of the ship, grabbed onto the lifebuoy, and swam towards the people in the water.

The two ships were not far apart, and among the people struggling in the water, some could swim, so they grabbed onto the lifebuoys.

On board, the guards rushed over to help, tugging the ropes attached to the lifebuoys back.

In a moment, they dragged both the people and the lifebuoys back to the side of the ship.

When they hauled these people up one by one, everyone could clearly see that they had saved four men and four women in total.

Among these eight people, three were young girls, one was a middle-aged woman, and the other four were young men.

The few girls who didn’t sink into the river were fortunate to have the protection of these swimming men.

Now they were all drenched, huddled together in a cabin, shivering from the cold.

Especially the girls, they were barely clothed.

However, there were no spare clothes on the boat for them.

The guards couldn’t bear to see this, so one of them stepped forward and knocked on the door of Yingbao’s cabin.

Xu Chunniang opened the cabin door and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Madam, a ship nearby capsized and we managed to rescue a few women. They’re without clothes. We were hoping you might lend them some garments,” the rescuer explained.

Immediately, Chunniang nodded, “I’ll see what I can find.”

She turned around and rummaged through her belongings, producing two of her own outer garments, “I only have these two, take them.”

The guard accepted the garments and frowned, “Madam, there are four women.”

Chunniang apologized, “I’m sorry, these are the only garments I have. The clothes of my daughter are too small, they probably won’t fit them.”

Without a better solution, the guard took the two garments back to the women.

The wind outside seemed to subside and the rain started to lighten.

The overturned ship on the river remained inverted, with scattered debris floating around it.

A few boats went forward to salvage what they could. Some returned the saved items to the survivors, while some boats simply gathered the salvaged goods and left.

The saved survivors sat on the riverbank, weeping in despair, powerless to change their plight.

As the rain ceased, sunlight bathed the earth once more.

The rescued women, who had been in the cabin, eventually emerged onto the ship’s deck.

The sight of their capsized ship, with only a small part visible above the water, brought them to tears.

All their clothing, jewelry, and Silver Coin, were lost.

The boat lady asked, “Where are you planning to go? If it’s not out of our way, you can travel with us.”

“We were heading to Beijing. Where is your boat headed?” asked the middle-aged woman.

The boat lady clapped her hands, “Ah, that’s unfortunate. We’re actually on our way from Beijing, heading to Luzhou.”

“That is unfortunatate,” the middle-aged woman looked disappointed, she carefully asked, “Can we persuade you to first take us back to Beijing? Rest assured, we will surely reward you handsomely when we arrive.”

The boat lady regretfully shook her head, “We can’t make that decision. Although this boat is ours, we’re required to head to Luzhou as per the orders of our employer. Unfortunately, we cannot turn back.”

While they were talking, the middle-aged woman spotted two people coming out from another cabin and her eyes lit up.

“You are Xu Chunniang, aren’t you?” she hurriedly walked over to them and greeted.

Chunniang looked equally surprised, “Lady Wen? What are you doing here?”

Lady Wen replied, “I was taking my daughter to visit our relatives in Beijing, but a storm last night overturned our boat. How strange, what brought you to Beijing?”

“My daughter was in Beijing for a medical consultation with a nobleman. We were actually about to return home.” Chunniang replied.

“Your daughter is here too?” Lady Wen couldn’t help but glance curiously at Chunniang’s side.

Chen Zhao, who knew Lady Wen, quickly paid her respects and greeted her.

Lady Wen just looked at her without uttering a word, her gaze wandered around.

“My daughter is still sleeping,” Chunniang mentioned.

Chunniang’s daughter had been up late the previous night and was unable to get up in the morning. Chunniang decided to let her sleep in, wrapped up in her blanket.

“Oh,” Lady Wen changed her mind abruptly and decided not to return to Beijing.

Last time, her brother screwed up an assignment and got their uncle thrown into prison.

The purpose of her visit to Beijing was to plead with her father-in-law, hoping he would leverage his relationship and get her uncle out of jail.

Unfortunately, her plan was thwarted by the bad weather and their boat capsized.

Thankfully, they were rescued by good samaritans. If not for them, the outcome would have been unthinkable.

Seeing that Lady Wen had been silent for a while, Chunniang spoke in a low voice, “I need to freshen up. Please excuse me.”

Then, she straightaway headed towards the washroom.

Following closely behind, Chen Zhao entered the washroom and closed the door.

On board, this washroom also served as the ladies’ Gongfang, and the smell was somewhat unpleasant.

Chunniang hurriedly cleaned up, fetched a bucket of water to rinse the toilet and then led Chen Zhao back to the cabin.

Seeing that her daughter was now awake, Chunniang whispered, “I have to tell you something very strange.”

“What is it!” Yingbao curiously asked.

Chunniang said, “Lady Wen, along with her two daughters, was travelling to Beijing and their boat capsized last night. They were rescued by our ship’s crew. All three of them survived without a scratch. Isn’t that strange?”